In Elanthoor, a quiet town in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, there is a house nearly hidden behind wild creepers and tangled shrubs, where vines have climbed across the tiled roof, pushing their way through broken windowpanes and wrapping around the iron gate as if determined to keep people away.
What was once a modest home and treatment center run by a local couple has become a space many avoid, even in daylight, despite the road that runs straight past it and the neighbors who live only a few steps away.
Those who live nearby still remember it as the house of Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila, who were known for offering ayurvedic massages and herbal treatments.
After their arrest in October 2022, however, it has become known instead as the site where two women were murdered and buried, their remains later exhumed in the presence of police officers, forensic teams, and stunned onlookers who could smell the earth before they saw what it contained.
A neighbor remembers a visit
Jose Thomas, who lived in the house next door, recalled that on the night of October 9, Bhagaval Singh came over with a quiet, almost careful tone and asked whether Jose’s CCTV cameras captured the road clearly and whether they could pick up images of people sitting inside parked vehicles near the gate.
At the time, Jose did not think much of it, and when Singh mentioned that the police might call and had been given Jose’s number, the conversation seemed unusual but not alarming.
The next morning, police officers arrived and took both Singh and his wife into custody from their home. Jose saw them being escorted to the vehicle with their heads lowered and assumed, without much concern, that it might be a case related to illegal medicine or possibly drugs.
It was only after the news broke the following day that he realised the reason for their arrest was far more disturbing than anything he had imagined.
Two women vanish, months apart
The investigation began to move quickly in early October when Padma, a 52-year-old woman who sold lottery tickets in Kochi, was reported missing by her son.
She had been living alone since February in a small rented room and used to call her sister Palaniamma every night, a habit she never skipped until late September, when the calls suddenly stopped.
When her sister visited to check on her, she found the door locked and Padma’s phone unreachable.
Police traced the last signal from Padma’s mobile phone to Pathanamthitta district, and upon examining her call records, they discovered that she had been in contact several times with a man named Mohammed Shafi.
They began to follow the trail of numbers linked to Shafi and found that he had also been communicating frequently with Bhagaval Singh, who lived in the same area. When officers questioned Singh, he admitted to Padma’s murder.
Rosli, the other victim, had been missing since June. She was 49 and also sold lottery tickets, working near the Kalady bus stand in Ernakulam district. Her daughter had filed a missing person complaint, but with no leads and limited resources, the case had remained unresolved for four months.
It was only after Singh’s confession regarding Padma that police connected the two disappearances and reopened the earlier case.
What the police found buried
On October 11, police teams from both Kochi and Pathanamthitta arrived at the Singh residence with the three accused in custody. The street was barricaded, officers were stationed at key junctions, and public access to the area was cut off while investigators began searching the premises.
The three accused, their faces covered, were escorted to the site in the presence of forensic experts and local laborers hired to dig.
The accused directed officers to a banana tree in the backyard. The soil had hardened, and the undergrowth was dense, but after nearly three hours of digging, the team recovered six body parts believed to belong to one of the victims.
Among them was a left foot, and further excavation revealed additional remains scattered across different parts of the premises. The stench was overwhelming, and even seasoned officers were visibly shaken by what they saw.
Forensic officers noted the unusually clean and precise cuts made to the flesh, which raised suspicions about the tools used and the experience of the person performing the act.
A familiar face with too many names
Mohammed Shafi, the man who allegedly brought both victims to the house, was already known to police. He was 52 years old and had used several identities, including the name Rasheed.
Over the years, he had worked a variety of jobs, including truck driver, butcher, hospital peon, real estate agent, and even a helper in a mortuary unit at a government hospital. He had also faced a rape accusation in the past, though the case had not gone far in court.
Police officers described Shafi as a manipulative individual who could read people’s weaknesses and say exactly what they needed to hear. He had a reputation for gaining trust quickly, and he often used this ability to lure women into dangerous situations.
In both murder cases, police believe he befriended the victims by purchasing all their lottery tickets and giving them small amounts of cash regularly, eventually offering them what seemed like harmless job opportunities.
According to investigators, Shafi told both women that he knew a couple looking for domestic help or massage assistants. He brought them separately to the Elanthoor house under that pretext. There, he, along with Bhagaval Singh and Laila, carried out the murders.
Officers later confirmed that Shafi had convinced the couple that human sacrifice would bring them prosperity and spiritual elevation.
A broader pattern begins to surface
Once news of the confessions became public, more families approached the police. Among them were relatives of Bindhu Padmanabhan, a woman from Alappuzha district who had been missing since 2013. She was financially well-off and owned property worth several crores.
According to her relatives, she was last seen with a man resembling Shafi shortly before she disappeared. Although a missing complaint had been registered at the time, the case had seen little progress.
In 2017, her brother filed a fresh complaint, alleging that her property had been seized using forged documents. A property dealer and his accomplice were later arrested in that case, while a third suspect died by suicide soon after being summoned for questioning.
Now, with Shafi in custody, police have decided to reexamine the case to see if there are any links.
The family of another woman named Sarojini, a 58-year-old domestic worker, also contacted the authorities. Sarojini’s body had been found in a gunny bag in 2014, just a few kilometers from Singh’s house. Her relatives claimed the body had 27 wounds and that one hand was missing.
They also mentioned that her post-mortem report indicated she died due to severe bleeding and that her body had been washed and stuffed with flowers. Police had closed that case the same year, citing lack of evidence, but it has now been reopened.
Items recovered from the house
As the investigation continued, the Special Investigation Team recovered several items from the house in Elanthoor. Among the seized objects were four machetes, a long sword, two heavy wooden logs, a pressure cooker believed to have been used for cooking human flesh, and several ropes made of plastic.
Forensic teams also found bloodstains in the refrigerator and spotted dark smears on the massage room walls.
Books related to black magic and ritual sacrifice were also recovered. Officers said Shafi had introduced these texts to Bhagaval Singh and Laila in the months leading up to the murders.
Sniffer dogs were brought to the premises again in late October, along with cadaver detection teams, to search for additional buried remains, though no new discoveries were announced.
DNA samples were taken from the recovered remains and sent for testing. Since the bodies had been mutilated, visual identification was not possible, but laboratory results later confirmed that the remains belonged to Padma and Rosli.
The case continues to widen
Kerala Police announced that they would reopen all missing persons cases involving women reported in the last five years in the districts of Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta.
According to officials, there are at least 26 such cases—12 in Pathanamthitta and 14 in Ernakulam—dating back to 2017. Investigators are now examining each file to determine whether Shafi or any of his known associates appear in the background.
Shafi’s digital records are also under scrutiny. Police found that he had operated at least three fake Facebook accounts and used them to contact various women and spiritual groups.
While two of the accounts have been recovered, the third remains inaccessible, and officers have requested assistance from the platform to retrieve it. Shafi’s phone, believed to contain crucial evidence, has not been found. His wife told police that he destroyed it two months before his arrest after a fight.
Awaiting further answers
The three accused—Shafi, Bhagaval Singh, and Laila—are currently in judicial custody at Viyyur Central Prison in Thrissur. They have not made any public statements. The Special Investigation Team continues to examine links between the current case and other unresolved disappearances.
For now, the house in Elanthoor remains untouched. Its gate stays closed, the rooms sealed, and the banana tree behind which the bodies were buried still stands near the back wall. Few passersby linger there anymore, but even those who walk by in silence know what lies beneath the ground.
